Herakleitos and Diogenes

About this book

All the extant fragments of Herakleitos & a collection of Diogenes' words from various sources. Herakleitos' words, 2500 years old, usually appear in English translated by philosophers as makeshift clusters of nouns & verbs which can then be inspected at length. Here they are translated into plain English & allowed to stand naked & unchaperoned in their native archaic Mediterranean light. The practical words of the Athenian street philosopher Diogenes have never before been extracted from the apochryphal anecdotes in which they have come down to us. They are addressed to humanity at large, & are as sharp & pertinent today as when they were admired by Alexander the Great & St Paul.